Editing Aristocracy (section)

== History ==
Aristocracies dominated political and economic power for most of the medieval and modern periods almost everywhere in Europe, using their wealth and land ownership to form a powerful political force. The [[English Civil War]] involved the first sustained organised effort to reduce aristocratic power in Europe. 

=== 18th and 19th centuries ===
In the 18th century, the rising [[merchant class]] attempted to use money to buy into the aristocracy, with some success. However, the [[French Revolution]] in the 1790s forced many [[French nobility|French aristocrats]] into exile and caused consternation and shock in the aristocratic families of neighbouring countries. After the defeat of [[Napoleon]] in 1814, some of the surviving exiles returned, but their position within French society was not recovered.

Beginning in Britain, industrialization in the 19th century brought urbanization, with wealth increasingly concentrated in the cities, which absorbed political power. However, as late as 1900, aristocrats maintained political dominance in Britain, [[Germany]], [[Denmark]], [[Sweden]], [[Austria]] and [[Russia]], but it was an increasingly-precarious dominion. 

=== 20th century ===
The [[First World War]] had the effect of dramatically reducing the power of aristocrats in all major countries. In Russia, aristocrats were [[Red Terror|imprisoned and murdered]] by the communists. After 1900, liberal and socialist governments levied heavy taxes on landowners, spelling their loss of economic power.<ref>{{cite book |first=Barrington |last=Moore |title=The social origins of dictatorship and democracy |date=1966}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=David |last=Cannadine |title=The decline and fall of the British aristocracy |date=1990|publisher = Anchor Books |isbn = 9780385421034}}</ref>